🗺 introduction: places
I’ve always had a strong affinity to certain places.
Ever since I was young, I’ve believed that a place could reach out for you: inspiring you to learn its past and backroads like the backs of your hand. That a place could call out to you: urging you to traverse streets that span out like veins from a heart.
When you’re in the right place, you feel it in the breeze.
And when you’re in the wrong place, you know it in how difficult things become.
No matter how large the city, you feel claustrophobic. No matter how many new people there are to meet, you find yourself with the same type of person while becoming a stranger to yourself.
All of this to say: when it was time to leave San Francisco, I knew.
I uprooted, stripped away the noise, and moved.
To Thailand.
And through tears and chaos, I learned about what it means to be bounded and boundless.
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I’m rebuilding and applying this life lesson to my work. As I’m starting to see results, I’d like to share what I’m learning with you.
If we were sitting across from each other, coffee in hand right now, this is what I’d tell you:
You were lied to. (lol)
Growing up, we were told to “choose a lane and stay in it.”
Choose a major. Choose a job. Choose a path. Choose a place.
And somewhere in that assembly line of choices, we learned to dream within “reasonable” limits — unspoken and spoken boundaries around what was “reasonable” and “realistic.”
And though that lesson may have been relevant 20 years ago, that thinking is now obsolete.
Here’s the truth you and I are finally waking up to:
we are already global, even if our mindset isn’t yet.
There is a right place for you. Likely, a few.
But every place is limiting.
And while you may benefit greatly from moving across the world like I did: you don’t have to be anywhere other where you are right now to win.
Thailand may not be the right place for me.
Where I was hoping for expansiveness, I’ve felt a lot of limitation so far. (I’m learning that every place has major drawbacks.)
But I’m not shrinking to my zip code. And neither should you.
When I got here, I made a promise that I would build a new income stream for myself with Pinterest.
And after hours of working and reworking brand identities, boards and keywords: I’ve already exceeded my goal of 100k impressions on one Pinterest account (with another quickly approaching).
And in the process, I’ve learned quite a bit.
Namely, that social media and search engine platforms make you limitless.
I was already global before stepping on that plane.
And honestly, it’s been hard for me to fully grasp this and what it means for the future of my career.
I’m unpacking all of the ways my parents and teachers unknowingly lied to me growing up, imparting so many limiting beliefs. They grew up with a small fraction of what most five year olds have access to today and taught me about a world that was quickly becoming something else.
They couldn’t have possibly known, let alone teach me, what I needed to understand to win now.
That ignorance ends with us.
It’s time we stop shrinking ourselves into obsolete boxes:
local jobs, local trends, local markets, local money...
As long as you have access to wifi, you have access to the world and the world has access to you.
And the second you stop building for one timezone, one language, or one continent, the world multiplies for you.
And that’s what localization is — not gaming a setting, but learning to step into a bigger arena than the one you were taught to claim.
Because the world is wide.
And you deserve to take up all of it — not just a dot on the map.
🌍 localization: what tf it actually means
What I’ve learned so far:
Localization is the process of adapting your brand to meet the needs of local markets.
The Pinterest platform is globalized. And its algorithm attributes far less value to local relevancy than other variables like topic and niche.
On Pinterest, you may have already noticed your content getting liked by Pinners across the world. This is what I mean. Pinterest goes beyond keywords and language. And that “willy-nilly” factor has made localization a little trickier for me.
I started five accounts in August and September ‘25. (I know, ridiculous.)
One of them is a bridal account that targets brides in Australia and New Zealand.
When I created the new account, I opted for Australasia as my location. And on each pin, I used keywords local to that region.
After publishing about 50 pins for this account: I (drumroll please) still don’t know if I’ve successfully targeted Australasia. And at no fault of my own.
New Zealand is not a top 10 country for Pinterest. And Pinterest does not differentiate between non-top 10 countries in its Audience Insights.
Thus, I will never know how much of my audience is from New Zealand or any other non-top 10 country.
The closest I can get to knowing (as far as I’m aware) is by paying for ads that specifically target New Zealand and Australia. I could also survey high-interest Pinners who sign up for my email list.
What I’m going to try:
Since I don’t want to pay for ads, I’m adjusting my content strategy. Going forward, I’m only targeting Australia so that I can have more information on my audience within the limits of Pinterest’s Insights.
I’m also going to replicate top posts for trending topics that are specific to Australia.
This is different from replicating just any trend, as I’m looking for what’s unique to Australia. That is: what is trending there that isn’t trending in the US or anywhere else for that matter.
I’ll do this because I’ve found that localization is easier when you meet a market where it is and others aren’t, trend and culture wise. It’s easiest to cut through the noise when there isn’t much noise to begin with. Meaning: low competition and low globalization = only one country or region will resonate.
And that speaks to my common sense: a strategy that uses global trends would definitely skew my audience pool.
My other Pinterest account corroborates my theory. It targets the United States, and I recently went viral with 200k impressions on two different pins. Over 66% of its total audience resides in the U.S.
Since I created this account in Thailand without a VPN, I can rule that out as a viable localization tool.
I can also rule out country keywords as I didn’t include anything country specific in my keywords for these posts.
So, I suspect that my success is due to the fact that my niche is hyperlocal. Though popular elsewhere, most won’t ever resonate with it nearly as much as Americans do.
This means that localization is easiest on Pinterest when you choose a niche and relevant trends that don’t really resonate anywhere else but your target country.
For you, this could look like using a combination of the following:
- seasonal alignment (e.g., it’s summer in Australia when it’s winter in the U.S. season = local relevancy)
-
visual culture cues (color palettes, fashion vibes, aesthetic preferences)
- colors and images carry different meaning across cultures, so changing this to reflect local values has been super impactful for my US account
-
search behavior by country (because people search differently in different markets)
- note: I’ve learned a lot by replicating popular pins of the region
- may help: regional keywords (e.g., “bush wedding” vs “outdoor wedding”)
- doesn’t seem to have made much of a difference for my accounts, but YMMV
- may help: time zone–aligned posting
- doesn’t seem to have made much of a difference for my accounts, but I haven’t thoroughly tested this
TLDR; Localization = the bridge between your brand and a specific country’s culture and market. This comes with relevant, hyper-local content, not VPNs or settings.
Let’s compare notes. What have you tried? What works?
✈️ why this matters for growth
I became relevant to a country that’s halfway around the world from me. And this should prove the power of localization.
This should free you from the myth that your success depends on your VPN, your circle, your city, or your country’s economy.
In the two short months I’ve used it, Pinterest has given me access to:
- different markets with strong purchasing power and intent
- regions where my brand has popularity in a market that is not oversaturated
- and audiences who actually share my taste, values, and vibe whilst living far away in a southeast Asian country
This suggests that our dreams may have been difficult to grasp thus far simply because they aren’t local to us.
Now you know: they don’t have to be.
🔧 tldr; how to localize your pinterest (the simple version, not the complicated one)
The gist of my notes:
You don’t need a VPN.
Pinterest distributes your content globally by default.
If you want a specific country, you probably just need to get more specific with your content and niche.
Pinterest localization is not forcing reach with VPNs, settings and keywords.
It’s redirecting it with very specific, hyperlocal content.
💡 the mindset that shifted everything
Most of us who stay “small” aren’t lacking intelligence, talent or work ethic.
We’re lacking places. (Plural)
Places to expand.
Places to experiment.
Places to be seen by people who understand.
Pinterest localization is not just strategy; it’s symbolism for finding your tribe and finding yourself, in different places.
It says: I am not tied to one place, one audience, or one version of myself.
And now that I’ve chosen to embody that, I’ve stopped being limited by choice and started compounding by choice.
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